Professor Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson

International Development Department
Professor of African Politics
Director of Research for the College of Social Sciences

Contact details

Address
International Development Department
School of Government
Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Paul Jackson is a political economist working predominantly on conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. A core area of interest is decentralisation and governance and it was his extensive experience in Sierra Leone immediately following the war that led him into the area of conflict analysis and security sector reform. He was Director of the GFN-SSR and is currently an advisor to the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre which engages him in wide ranging policy discussion with donor agencies engaged in these activities, including various European Governments, the EU, the UN and the World Bank as well as the UK Government.

  • Programme Leader on the Sustainable Development Programme for the British Academy
  • Member of the Advisory Group on the Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research

Qualifications

  • PhD Public Policy (Birmingham)
  • MSc Information Management (UCE)
  • MA Development Studies (East Anglia)
  • BA Economics and Politics (York)

Biography

Paul Jackson is a political economist working predominantly on conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. A core area of interest is decentralisation and governance and it was his extensive experience in Sierra Leone immediately following the war that led him into the area of conflict analysis and security sector reform. He was Director of the GFN-SSR and is currently an advisor to the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre which engages him in wide ranging policy discussion with donor agencies engaged in these activities, including various European Governments, the EU, the UN and the World Bank as well as the UK Government.

Paul was also Head of the School of Government and Society till July 2010 where he managed five academic departments and some 200 staff across political science and international studies, local government studies, sociology, Russian and European studies and international development. He remains a board member of the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security (ICCS), a member of the University’s Cybersecurity Committee and Chair of the University’s Chaplaincy Committee. This latter role involves him in a series of student welfare committees.

Paul also works in several overseas locations for institutions ranging from the World Bank to local civil society organisations. These include Rwanda, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Bhutan, India, China and Nepal, amongst others. He is an experienced aid evaluator as well as governance and conflict analyst.

Teaching

Programme director of the MSc International Development (Conflict, Security and Development), with additional teaching at Undergraduate level on War Torn States.

Director of the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR)

Research

Research interests

The basic question I am interested in is the creation, destruction and reconstruction of states, particularly in Africa. The focus of a lot of my current work has been on the following:

  1. The nature of the liberal state and the politics of liberal state-building in post-conflict situations.
  2. Security sector reform, DDR and the relationship between security and development.
  3. Governance and security.
  4. Decentralisation, governance and community involvement in governance.

Current and recent projects

What happens to combatants after wars? Tracing Maoists back to civilian life in Nepal (Government of Sweden)

International Perceptions and African Agency: Uganda and its Donors 1986-2010 (ESRC) with Dr Jonathan Fisher

Local Ownership in post-conflict security interventions (Marie Curie, EU) with Dr Nicolas Lemay-Hebert

Saving Humans: Risk, Intervention, Survival, for the University of Birmingham Institute of Advanced Studies, with colleagues professor Nick Wheeler and Professor Heather Widdows.

  • Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR) (Director)
  • Sierra Leone Intervention (Various projects including writing up UK experience in intervening in Sierra Leone)
  • Decentralisation and conflict (Sierra Leone, Northern Uganda)
  • Sierra Leone decentralisation
  • Ghana evaluation methodology
  • Bhutan decentralisation
  • Role of Government in Adjusting Economies

Other activities

Membership of Professional Organisations

  • Higher Education Academy (originally ILT)
  • Registered practitioner with the HEA and also an assessor for the Certificate in teaching and Learning taken by all new staff within the University of Birmingham.
  • Political Studies Association, British International Studies Association, African Studies Association and Royal African Society, American Political Science Association membership

Other professional roles

  • Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA). Fellowship elected on the basis of my academic management role as an educator in public policy.
  • Member of the African Security Sector Network, as an independent adviser, reviewing and editing, advice on funding and review.
  • Senior Security and Justice Adviser, UK Stabilisation Unit, as a Deployable Civilian Expert (DCE)

Publications

The Elgar Handbook of Security and Development, February 2015 (as editor and also two chapters)

Securing Sierra Leone, 1997–2013: Defence, Diplomacy and Development in Action, Royal United Services Institute Whitehall Papers No. 82. With Co-author, Peter Albrecht. December 2014. This is also available as a special issue of a journal: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwhi20/current#.VJGFUE0cRMs

Conflict, Security and Development, Routledge, with co-author, Danielle Beswick. (1st Edition 2011). 2nd Edition, October 2014.

Reconstructing Security after Conflict: Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, with Co-author, Peter Albrecht. Palgrave, 2011.

Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone 1997 - 2007: Views from the Front Line, (Edited book), Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, Lit Verlag, Berlin, July 2010

‘Whose justice in Sierra Leone? Power and justice in the countryside’, Air and Space Power Journal-Africa and Francophonie (ASPJ-A&F) Issue 1, 2015. http://www.au.af.mil/au/afri/aspj/apjinternational/aspj_f/article.asp?id=144

‘State-Building through Security Sector Reform: The UK intervention in Sierra Leone’, Peacebuilding, Volume 2 (1), 2014. Pp. 83-99. With Peter Albrecht.

‘Decentralised authorities, decentralised power and who gets access to justice in Sierra Leone’, Journal of Legal Pluralism, No.63, 2011, Pp.207-231

‘What are we Talking about when we Talk about Fragile States?’, Sicherheit und Freiden (Security and Peace), 4, 2011, Pp.225-231

‘SSR and the UK Approach to State Building’, Third World Quarterly, 32:10, 1803-1822, November 2011

‘The Civil War Roots of Military Domination in Zimbabwe: The Integration Process Following the Rhodesian War and the Road to ZANLA Dominance’, The Journal of Civil Wars volume 13, issue 4, November 2011: 371-395

Jackson, P (2009) ‘'Negotiating with ghosts’: Religion, conflict and peace in Northern Uganda’, The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, Issue 402, June 2009. Pp.319-332

Jackson, P (2009) ‘Mars, Venus or Mercury: AFRICOM and America’s Ambiguous Intentions’, Contemporary Security Policy, Volume 30, Issue 1, April 2009, Pp. 1-4.

Jackson, P (2009) ‘Mission and Pragmatism in US security policy in Africa’, Contemporary Security Policy, Volume 30, Issue 1, April 2009. Pp. 45-49.

Jackson, P (2007) ‘Reshuffling the deck? The politics of decentralisation in Sierra Leone’, African Affairs, January 2007, 106: 95-111. African Affairs is the premier journal on African and is the journal of the Royal African Society and African Studies Association. This is a high prestige article that has led to further research funding, along with article 4, below.

Jackson, P (2007) ‘Are Africa’s wars part of a fourth generation of warfare?’ Contemporary Security Policy, August 2007, 28 (2): 267-285. This article is one of a series of three articles being published during 2007 on the links between African conflicts and theories of warfare. CSP is the leading Journal in this field and is published in the US, so has a global impact. The editor described my piece as ‘an important theoretical contribution to bringing Africa back in to debates about war’.

Jackson, P (2005) ‘Chiefs, Money and Politicians: Rebuilding Local Government in Sierra Leone’, Public Administration and Development, 25, 2005. Pp.49-58. PAD is a high-impact journal and is in the top rank of journals in development. It is the main journal dealing with public administration. This article is in the top 50 downloaded articles of the journal between January 04 and August 06.

Jackson, P (2002) Business Development in Asia and Africa, Palgrave (2002). This book remains the only comprehensive study of business development agencies in Africa and Asia and their influence on economic development. The book was described by DFID’s head of industrial development as ‘the most useful book in the field’.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Developing countries, particularly Africa. Post conflict reconstruction, security, peace agreements and peace building, governance